Asking The Big Questions on Anime and Manga

Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou – Full Season QandA Rundown

What’s the important information? Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou is a Summer 2018 romantic comedy that aired 12 episodes between July and September. It is based on a Seinen manga by Nekoume.

What’s it about? Aki Shina is a shy and nervous boy who—due to his feminine looks is often mistaken for a girl. After leaving the countryside to move to Tokyo for school he begins lodging at Sunohara-sou and is instantly enraptured by the busty and motherly caretaker Ayaka. The series follows Aki’s daily exploits with the various other female residents of the dorm, while trying to showcase his masculinity wherever he can.

God tier.

Why did you watch it? Despite not traditionally being a premise I was into, especially considering Wikipedia calls it a “romantic comedy” I saw big potential in this series—and by big I’m of course referring to Ayaka’s shapely bosom! Ahem…

Did you enjoy the show? I honestly really did to an expectantly high level. While there’s a large amount of sexually suggestive humour and harem-esque shenanigans with the various girls in the dorm, it’s also surprisingly wholesome and good-natured—though I guess that’s rather dependent on the viewer’s tolerance for the abating material more than it is the show itself…

At least he’s pretending to avert his gaze!

What was your favourite episode? Episode 6 came in strong with a new ~opponent~ for Aki to contend with in the form of Ayaka’s gyaru sister Nana who significant ups the sexual advances toward Aki. And if that weren’t enough it’s also a pool set episode that introduces another two character (albeit minor ones) in form of Nana’s high-school friends Maiko and Mea who are boy-hungry shotacons who up the ante considerably.

We’ve all been here, right?

What were your most favourite things about the show? The various interactions between Aki and the main residents of the dorm; Ayaka, Yuzu, Sumire and Yuri are the lynchpin which keeps this series moving forward despite itself. Not only is the comedy strong throughout these varied and sundry interactions but so is the latent sexual tension which, while varying depending on the character is still present nonetheless.

What were your least favourite things about the show? If I were to look at the show objectively I’d say that some of the things the female characters ‘perpetrate’ on Aki are akin to sexual assault—but who on earth is bringing realism into a show that’s meant to satisfy very specific fetishes above all else!

Hello, police?!

Who was your favourite character? Moreso than for perhaps any other show this season this question here was the hardest. Aesthetically speaking Sumire is ‘best girl’, while Yuri brings the most consistent laughs, Ayaka is a big breasted goddess and that’s kind of hard to dispute but her sister Nana takes action and that’s to be admired. Ultimately though, while Aki himself receives the most screen-time, it’s the one who journeys most from beginning to end that deserves the prize of ‘favourite character’ and in this case it belongs to little loli Yuzu.

She might be small but she has an impact.

Thoughts on the OP (opening) and ED (ending) and the soundtrack in general? The OP, “Bitter Sweet Harmony” by Megumi Nakajima is all kinds of adorable and fun and not to mention very catchy! Equally catchy—but in a different and more complex way is the ED “Sonna no Boku Ja Nai” by Shino Shimoji. It’s almost kind of sexy but it’s hard to put my finger on why.

What’s something unique about this show? I don’t know how many shows put a shota as their main character, let alone how many shows pander to presumably their audiences affection towards this kind of character or envisioning themselves in the role of Aki as he’s doted and borderline molested by a bevvy of beautiful women. That kind of ~gaze~ is unique, at least as far as the shows I usually watch are concerned!

Sumire loves cute things.

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? Tonally its comparable to ‘Slow Start’ which was similarly relaxed and slice of life adjacent while maintaining a sexualised edge that was present a mile away. Likewise the various interactions between Aki and his makeshift harem are not unlike the ~shenanigans~ Luluco and Shouta get up to in ‘Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid’.

Who would you recommend it to? There’s a great deal of fun to be had with this series, and anyone who’s ~remotely~ interested in the exploits of these characters and their setting will find enough to enjoy about it.

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘Must love small boys and big boobs’.

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I wanted to watch this show, but I like to limit myself on the number of anime I watch per season and this lost out to cells at work and Demon Lord. But I might give this one a shot now, it looks fun and almost akin to to love ru which is a guilty pleasure of mine, at least the earlier seasons are anyway. 🙂

I mostly liked this show, although sometimes Ayaka’s treatment of Aki got a little skeevy and honestly inappropriate. Nana was almost entirely inappropriate with Aki, and Yuri is just a bad person. I thought that Maiko and Uchifuji were fun characters who were having fun teasing Aki, but they wouldn’t really get out of hand, not like Nana would.

And Lucoa is in Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. Luluco is a trash show from Amemiya and Imaishi at Trigger (everything the two of them have directed is garbage in my view).